This week’s Brief Reviews, I’ve lined up three films with a criminal theme.

Headhunters

Easily the film with the highest production value and sharpest cinematography, Headhunters is a surprisingly unsatisfying experience. Based on bestselling Norwegian author Jo Nesbø’s crime fiction, Headhunters tells the tale of an art thief who makes the misstep of stealing a painting from a former special forces soldier who specialized in tracking people. A great setup which the film executes as if the producers of CSI made their own version of No Country for Old Men. Perhaps it is telling that director Morten Tyldum spent the majority of his career heading a Norwegian TV series.… Read the rest

Anything worth doing is worth doing twice. At least in Hollywood. Which is why Jake Gyllenhall and Jesse Eisenberg are playing doppelgangers. Well, maybe not in the same film. But Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessie Eisenberg are both playing characters who deal with the unforeseen consequences of encountering their double in films being released in the next month.

The doppelganger trope can be an interesting one as long as the actor can hold the audience’s attention. For example, Adaptation, featuring Nicolas Cage, works both because Charlie Kaufman’s script was in excellent hands with Spike Jonze and because Cage can chew up the screen when he can be bothered to.… Read the rest